1997 dodge intrepid

What is the name of your state? Tx
About 3 weeks ago my hubby and I put a down payment down on a 1997 Dodge Intrepid we picked the car up and drove it home it ran fine with no problems the following sunday we decided to go geta locking gas cap for the car and on the way to the parts store the temprature gage shot form cool to hot in a matter of minutes well after the car cooled down we found out that the metal line going from the water tank to the engine has a leak.....
We are buying the car from a dealer ship "as Is" but when we decided to buy the car they told us it was in tip top shape now my question is this...
If you buy a car "as is" is the car dealership required to fix the car??????????????????

A. No.

B. Water tank? Do you mean the "radiator"? Do you mean the "radiator hose"? If so, buy one for $10 and replace the stupid thing. BTW: it should be "rubber". If it's a metal pipe, it can also be replaced without much cost.

The dealer might replace it if you ask him (you have asked him, haven't you?), but he has no obligation to do so.

C. Have you actually completed the contract with the dealer and purchased the car (other than the down payment you mentioned)?

items like that can leak with little to no warning

Yeah....the car was in great shape, but not the radiator hose.

Dallas I meant the Water tank and NOT the radiatior the leak is in the main line behind the engine and it's a METAL hose and the last time I checked the radiator wasn't behind the engine of any vehicle and plus unbenounced to us the damn thing had been patched before we picked the car up and we ARE making payment's on the car **************... The fact is the car dealer lied to us and told us that there was not anything wrong with the car before we bought it.... That's what I was trying to find out if the the dealership could be made fix this problem and yessss Smart ass my husband did ask them to fix it but he keeps getting the run around on it......

You're still not making sense. Water tank behind the engine with a metal pipe going into it? When you say "behind" the engine are you talking about between the engine and the firewall/cabin of the car?

1- If so, are you talking about the heater core? The heater core sits up under the passenger side dashboard, but has the blower fan and water inlet/outlet connections on the engine comnpartment side "behind" the engine.

2- If so, does it leak any water into the passenger cabin?

3- Does the water have coolant (antifreeze) in it?

4- If not between the engine and the cabin, are you referring to the driver side of the engine (those engines sit sideways), between that and the driver side fender? If so, even though I don't have a manual in front of me, I can't picture a "metal" tank with a "metal pipe" to it for anything that came from the factory.

Unfortunately, if the dealer took the car in trade or bought it at auction for resale he can easily say he didn't know about the leak unless it was visible at the time he sold you the car. It's possible they htrew some "stop-leak" in the system and it temporarily plugged the leak, but that would be hard to prove.

Your best bet is going to be with the dealer at this point. If it is a heater core, it's a time-consuming job to replace it. if it's just the return pipe (should be something other than metal all the way) from the core to the block, it should be "easy" to replace.

Txangel4u said:

Dallas I meant the Water tank and NOT the radiatior the leak is in the main line behind the engine and it's a METAL hose and the last time I checked the radiator wasn't behind the engine of any vehicle and plus unbenounced to us the damn thing had been patched before we picked the car up and we ARE making payment's on the car **************... The fact is the car dealer lied to us and told us that there was not anything wrong with the car before we bought it.... That's what I was trying to find out if the the dealership could be made fix this problem and yessss Smart ass my husband did ask them to fix it but he keeps getting the run around on it......

Click to expand...

How do you know that it wasn't fine when he sold it to you? If you drove it home and it didn't over-heat, isn't it possible that the leak just started on Sunday? It would be very hard to prove that the dealership is at fault..imo.